My best guess is that I just threw out over $2,200 in clothing. The first picture attached to this blog is the mound of shirts, skirts, pants, blouses and dresses I pulled out of my closet this weekend, because they're now too big. The haul was enough to fill 3 huge kitchen trash bags. I figure... 25 items per bag... averaging $30 each... multiplied by 3 bags... that's a little over $2,200.
Monthly closet purges, like this one, have been part of my housework routine since October. Once a month I try on everything in my closet and toss anything that's too big -- usually enough to stuff between three and four trash bags. The nicer stuff I sell at Uptown Cheapskate, the rest gets donated. Then, I replenish my closet with items from the vast collection of clothing I've hoarded over the past 20 years.
As I began putting weight on, I saved the clothes I grew out of, hoping I'd eventually be small enough to wear them again. I ended up with a collection of every imaginable piece of clothing, in every possible color, spanning from size 00 to size 22!
A few weeks after surgery I bought a large, round clothing rack on Craigslist and began filling it with the clothes I'd stashed away over the past two decades, essentially setting up a store where I could shop as I dropped clothing sizes. I organized everything by type of clothing, then broke those sections down by size. The second picture attached to this blog is the first round of clothing I hung up, everything from size 22 jeans to size 12 skirts. The boxes in the background contain even more clothing, in smaller sizes, which I'm adding to the rack as room becomes available.
Getting to wear certain pieces of clothing again has been like stepping back in time and reliving some of my favorite memories. This month my closet is full of clothes I haven't worn in 10 years: mostly things I bought as a single girl, living in Manhattan. Thankfully, I've always had a relatively conservative sense of style, so most of my things aren't outdated. My mom, especially, enjoys watching me progress backward through my clothing collection. She likes seeing how excited I get each time I slip into an old dress or shirt I never imagined I'd ever fit into again.
I'm not existing solely on things I saved; I have had to buy some new pieces, but I'm shopping mostly at consignment shops. I'm still losing weight, and my clothing size won't stabilize for another 12 to 18 months, so I'm hesitant to commit to pricey retail clothing.
There have been some things I shrunk out of before I had a chance to wear them again. Today, I made a list of pieces in my closet that are about to become too big, so I remember to wear them in the next week or two, before I have to get rid of them!
